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Zero Hour (episode)
With the superweapon on its way to Earth, Archer leads a small team to intercept it before it can strike; T'Pol leads Enterprise on a mission to destroy one of the Spheres in the Expanse. Summary As Commander Dolim's starship escorts the Xindi superweapon to Earth, Degra's vessel and its human passengers closes in on them. Realizing that they can only destroy the weapon from within, Captain Jonathan Archer urges an injured Sato to finish deciphering Degra's encrypted superweapon schematics. Before embarking on his mission to destroy the Xindi weapon, Archer is, once again, paid a visit by Daniels, who takes him seven years into the future; to the signing of the Federation Charter in 2161. Daniels urges Archer not to proceed with his mission, as his role is crucial in the formation of the Federation. Archer refuses and proceeds with the mission. Within two hours they intercept the weapon, which, along with the Xindi-Reptilian warship, has emerged from the vortex and now moves in on the undefended Earth. While Archer watches in horror from the bridge of Degra's ship, Dolim destroys an unarmed civillian research post, but before he can take his revenge, the Andorian warship Kumari under one Commander Shran intercepts and insists on lending his assistance - repaying another debt, it would seem. With the Kumari running interference, Degra's vessel closes on the weapon and transports Archer, Reed, Sato, and a team of MACOs to the weapon. While the MACOs attempt to eliminate the Xindi-Reptilian engineers stationed aboard, Sato completes her decryption of the weapon's schematics and Archer begins the Inversion Sequence that will overload the weapon's power systems. As Reed sends the last Reptilian to his demise, Archer disables the probe's reactor and orders Sato, Reed, and the remaining MACOs to escape while he completes the Inversion Sequence. His plans hit a snag, however; it appears the Kumari was unable to prevent Commander Dolim himself from transporting to the weapon before his ship was destroyed. With the weapon exploding all around them, Archer and Dolim are locked in a bitter struggle - with an explosive finish. Realizing that the Enterprise is en route to a primary sphere and their plans for conquest are almost ruined, the extradimensional Sphere Builders accelerate the dimensional transformation rate around the spheres. T'Pol, knowing that this could have serious implications for the crew, consults Dr. Phlox, who manages to synthesize a compound that would protect them from the anomaly field for fifteen minutes at most. Meanwhile, Commander Tucker informs Mayweather that impulse power will be diverted to the main deflector - meaning the lieutenant will have to pilot the ship by thrusters once they've entered the anomaly field. Upon arrival, Mayweather immediately notes that the transdimensional field has expanded significantly, but it's too late to back out and T'Pol orders the ship to be taken into the field. After several minutes of fighting their way through the dimensional storm, they enter orbit around Sphere 41 and initiate a deflector pulse to take down the entire network. Unfortunately, the surrounding space had been altered sufficiently to sustain the Sphere Builders, nine of whom materialize on E Deck and begin destroying shipwide systems. Realizing that Tucker needs full deflector power to complete his task in time, Phlox recalls his studies of the Sphere Builder test subject and orders the MACOs to set their weapons to a specific rotating frequency. It works, and Tucker is able to destroy Sphere 41, causing a chain reaction that destroys the entire network, ceases the anomaly waves, and returns the Delphic Expanse to normal space. After confirmation that the network has, in fact, been destroyed, T'Pol awaits at the rendezvous point for several hours before Degra's ship arrives. As Reed and Sato return to Enterprise, they deliver the bittersweet news: Earth was saved, but Captain Archer failed to escape from the weapon in time. As the crew copes with this news, the Xindi-Primate councilor wishes them a safe journey and assures them that their captain's sacrifice will never be forgotten. Within a day, a Xindi-Aquatic vessel has delivered Enterprise back to Earth, where they attempt to contact Starfleet Headquarters - with no response. Scans reveal that neither the orbital platforms nor the Lunar colony exist, and when a shuttlepod is taken to investigate, it is attacked by three World War II-era U.S. warplanes. Later, A badly burned Archer is seen under the observation of three SS officers - one of whom is not human. Background Information *This episode marked the end of both the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise and the Xindi Arc. *This episode reveals the founding members of the United Federation of Planets are humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. *T'Pol finally reveals her age (63) to Trip who intially wondered all the way back during "Carbon Creek". *This episode marks the death of Dolim (Scott MacDonald). *This episode marks the final appearance of the Sphere Builders. *J. Paul Boehmer previously portrayed the Kapitan (VOY: "The Killing Game, Part I", "The Killing Game, Part II"), One (VOY: "Drone"), Vornar (DS9: "Tacking Into the Wind") and Mestral (ENT: "Carbon Creek"). *In the hiatus that followed this episode, many fans debated whether or not the mysterious alien working with the Nazis was Reman (Star Trek: Nemesis). *Rumors circulated before the airing of this episode speculating that as many as three endings were shot; however producers have denied this fact, stating that if the series had been cancelled following that season, the show would have ended on a cliffhanger. Nitpicks *In the last log entry of the episode, T'Pol makes the mistake of saying the year is 2152. *For some reason, despite an apparent constant Vulcan presence in the system and a relatively adept fleet, there are no ships in orbit of Earth who can aid in the battle. *While it was stated in "The Shipment" that the Xindi could only travel a few light-years in a subspace vortex, the Xindi-Aquatic cruiser is able to travel the entire distance between the Expanse and Earth in only a few hours. Memorable Quotes "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?" Dolim, after Archer overloads the weapon's reactor "You tell Captain Archer...now he owes ME!!!" Shran, as his ship is rocked by weapons fire. Links and References Guest Stars * Scott MacDonald as Dolim * Rick Worthy as Jannar * Tucker Smallwood as the Xindi-Primate councilor * Josette DiCarlo as Sphere-Builder Woman * Bruce Thomas as Xindi-Reptilian Soldier * Andrew Borba as Xindi-Reptilian Lieutenant * Matt Winston as Daniels * Mary Mara as Sphere-Builder Presage * Ruth Williamson as Sphere-Builder Primary * Jeffrey Combs as Shran * Gunter Ziegler as Doctor * J. Paul Boehmer as the SS ''Untersturmführer'' * Zachary Krebs as ''Kumari'' bridge officer References Andorian; Brazil; Canada; deflector array; Denobulans; Degra's ship; Earth; encryption; Kelly, Corporal; Kumari; Lunar One colony; Nazi; P-51 Mustang; photonic torpedo; Porthos; San Francisco; Sphere 41; Sphere Builders, Tellarites, thermobaric cloud; United Federation of Planets; Vulcan; Vulcans; Xindi Council; Xindi superweapon; Xindi-Aquatic; Xindi-Aquatic cruiser; Xindi-Arboreal; Xindi-Avian; Xindi-Insectoid; Xindi-Primate; Xindi-Reptilian; Xindi-Reptilian ship; Xindus; Yosemite 3 research post. Category:ENT episodes de:Stunde Null nl:Zero Hour